Love me, love my chickens!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013
4:27 AM

It all started with my dad, he has wanted to get chickens for – years, my gramps used to have them when mum was young. My dad had collected news articles and books on chickens all this time and was really determined to get them. When I was at our caravan on holiday I decided that I wanted a pet... after a lot of research in the library and on the computer we decided to get the chickens. First the Hutch or coop which my handyman brother Sam and chicken fan dad had slaved away to put up in an unbelievably fast morning. Then we had a lesson on keeping chickens from our close friend’s Tom, Yori, Jane and Gareth Evans, they taught us all the jobs and the excitement of egg collecting. After a hunt for somewhere “free range” to get our chickens we went to a lovely place in Malvern to get them called Newland poultry run by a lovely couple. They showed us the chickens all as curious as ever and told us about the breeds (they also do a chicken crèche for when you go on holiday) they taught us how to hold a chicken and how to check if they are in Point Of Lay by putting two fingers near the rear of the chickens! They let them out to run round! When we got home we started with a small run and tried to make it bigger, we failed once but eventually we succeeded with our (upturned, cleared) broken trampoline as the base. We had an escape once, it was in the small run I was treating them with stale bread sticks and two leapt out to escape (our most timid, shy of the lot named Speckles the other ether Winnie or Lola we cannot tell the difference as they are Identical!) I was chasing them and eventually got them back in! (Thank goodness!) Our six girls are named Salt (the white tail), Pepper (the black tail), Winnie and Lola (the Rhode Island rocks), Speckles (the Speckledy one) and Crystal (the light Sussex)! I started to have my own blog which is www.blogspot.co.ukmattschickens (please be kind with the comments and don’t swear as it is my family blog and all ages see it!). At the moment they are walking on wet, muddy garden and as you read this I will be waiting to open the chickens up or being reminded to do so! Matt Walker age 11

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